Animal welfare is in crisis across Ontario; Doug Ford is dodging accountability

Hearing Premier Doug Ford, Solicitor General Michael Kerzner and Minister of Natural Resources Mike Harris speak about the state of animal welfare in Ontario, one could easily think the province has the best protections in all of Canada; that Queen’s Park has zero tolerance for abuse or neglect; that wildlife and their life sustaining habitats will always be protected here. 

Nothing could be further from the truth. Ontario is in the midst of an animal welfare crisis like we’ve never seen before:

• Municipal animal controls, humane societies and rescues have been operating at over capacity levels since the first quarter of 2023.

Animal shelter and adoption agencies  have been operating over capacity since the beginning of 2023.

(Toronto Humane Society)

• Across the province, humane euthanasia is increasing at heartbreaking rates as a result of capacity issues in shelters; the number of owners surrendering or abandoning their pets is rising rapidly; and unchecked overbreeding among strays continues.
• Rescues receive no government funding and rely 100 percent on donations alone. However, they are often called upon by Provincial Animal Welfare Services (AWS) to save lives and perform other duties that are supposed to be carried out through the provincial system. Queen’s Park has failed to replicate the infrastructure the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (OSPCA) had created to support operations when animals were seized or in emergency cases. This life or death work falls on rescues and shelters which get no funds or very little support from the province. 
• The vast majority of rescues are carrying unsustainable debt, heavily weighed down by ballooning vet costs. Some vets will give a marginal discount to rescues, but with the volume of work, costs are skyrocketing. With more vet clinics being bought by large corporations, profitability trumps animal care.
• Recently, a prominent and long established Toronto animal rescue group sent a plea for help to Premier Doug Ford, asking for a meeting to discuss the ongoing plight of Ontario’s animal rescues. The matter was ignored by Ford and pushed to AWS where the response was dismissive and not helpful in addressing valid concerns.
• The vast majority of abuse/neglect cases are never prosecuted under the Provincial Animal Welfare Services (PAWS) Act. If they are, and a guilty plea or conviction is reached, penalties are a slap on the wrist. Based on data provided by the Ministry of the Attorney General, enforcement and justice rates are disturbing along with massive budget overruns: 
  • 0.1 percent of all Provincial Offence Act charges are animal welfare related;
  • 38 percent of all animal welfare charges laid are withdrawn by the Crown;
  • Only 12 percent of all animal welfare charges result in a guilty plea or conviction;
  • Only 19 percent of total animal welfare fines ordered in 2024/25 have been collected;
  • For 2024/25 the AWS Budget was estimated to come in at $27.2 million. The actual spending was $45.8 million with over 69 percent going to salaries.
• In Ontario, the government has decided that animals are not sentient (ability to perceive or feel things). In the eyes of the law they are mere property. However, our animal laws are rooted in the concept of distress. How can an unfeeling thing feel distress? This fundamental contradiction is at the root of many of the legislative issues advocates are attempting to fix. 
• There is no infrastructure (buildings for seized animals, clinic vets) in place to care for seized animals. As of January 2020, the PC government took over the animal welfare responsibility. It has yet to put in place critical infrastructure. This has had deadly consequences. In 2021, more than 200 dogs were removed from a sledding business by AWS. The dogs were held in private boarding facilities, paid for by Ontario taxpayers. The Provincial Animal Welfare tribunal found some of the facilities did not even meet the minimum kennel standards that the Province mandates. As of last year, it has been reported that 31 of the dogs died in these boarding facilities. It is unknown if necropsies were carried out to determine the cause of death. Some dogs when returned to the owners four months later were very underweight and infected with giardia, a common intestinal parasite in dogs that causes symptoms like diarrhea, vomiting and weight loss. 
• The Responsiveness of provincial enforcement agencies is dismal. For all of Ontario there are only 100 enforcement field officers. The Ford government has refused to invest in this critical infrastructure, allowing resident complaints to go unanswered. 
• The Basic Standards of Care within the PAWS Act (living conditions, heating/cooling, tethering, ventilation) is missing many critical elements to ensure proper care for animals, and the standards that do exist are vague—making enforcement and compliance nearly impossible. For example, the current state of the highly touted PUPS Act (Preventing Unethical Puppy Sales Act) does not mandate that breeders provide a decent quality of life for these animals: grooming, exercise, fresh air, enrichment, socialization and other types of care are missing. Dogs in puppy mills live a dismal life of fear and isolation until they are discarded by the unlicensed breeders. Despite repeated calls from advocates and legal experts for a licensing system to create a mechanism to hold breeders accountable, the PCs have refused. They have ignored overwhelming evidence from stakeholders that without licensing, commercial breeders continue to go undetected, with no oversight and the animals are left unprotected. This also means that many breeders remain invisible to the CRA, allowing them to earn significant income without paying taxes.

Conservative estimates of the income a commercial dog breeder (puppy miller) and a broker (middlemen who sell to the public or pet stores) could earn in a given year, depending on the number of dogs being exploited.

(Humane Initiative) 

• Six years following the establishment of the PAWS Act, there are still no standards of care for working dogs (livestock guardian dogs, sledding dogs, etc). 
• Marineland has a long history of alleged abuse and neglect. The marine animals live in inadequate enclosures that slowly destroy them mentally and physically. Reports of poor water quality resulting in illness and even death have been a constant concern as well. Since 2019, at least 20 whales have died at Marineland. The Province has failed to manage the situation and ensure the animals were being properly and humanely cared for. To this day, the suffering continues. With the corporation looking to sell the property, a threat was levied earlier this month that the beluga whales remaining on the site would be killed unless the federal government stepped in to help care for them. The province has the authority to act, but is deliberately pointing at others to step in and find a viable solution. AWS has the ability to seize those animals, provide proper care, then place a financial lien against the Marineland property so once sold, the taxpayers of Ontario are reimbursed. This is all laid out in the provincial legislation. Why won’t AWS act?
• Wildlife and environmental protection legislation is being rolled back at alarming rates in the name of “unleashing our economy” (see Bill 5, passed June 2025). The impact will be catastrophic. The legislation repeals the Endangered Species Act (ESA), weakens environmental safeguards and gives cabinet far-reaching powers to approve development in “special economic zones.” Those zones would require no environmental assessment, public consultation or Indigenous consent.  
• For anyone trying to get answers about many of these animal welfare concerns, there is little transparency. The Ford government routinely refuses or ignores Freedom of Information requests related to animal welfare issues in a blatant violation of provincial law. 
• Ford has lifted the 1997 license issuance ban of “penned hunting” facilities. Ontario is the only province that allows these facilities where a wild animal is trapped then released into a large enclosed area where hunting dogs are set loose to practice tracking them. These poor creatures run for their lives with no hope of escape until they are tracked down and ripped to shreds. Doug Ford lifted the ban to appease special interest groups. He did the same thing when he created a hunting season for the double-crested cormorant. Experts have been pointing out for years that there is no scientific justification for killing these birds, and the PC government has provided no evidence to support their reasons for allowing hunters to shoot 15 of these birds a day through the fall and early winter. 

There is perhaps no worse example of the PC government hypocrisy on animal welfare issues than the dog experiment “scandal” at St. Joseph’s Hospital in London in August. Following whistleblower reports of horrific experiments being done, Premier Ford gave an emotional plea.

“You aren’t going to use pets, dogs, or cats, to experiment on any longer. Simple as that. We just don’t do that, it’s cruel and it’s unacceptable.” 

But here is the scandal: the Ontario government has legislation permitting animal testing on domestic animals (dogs/cats). This legislation actually assists the labs in acquiring these animals to perform their experiments.

As the The Ontario Animals for Research Act, 1990 outlines:

”Purchase or other acquisition of animals

14 (1) No person shall purchase or otherwise acquire an animal from any person in Ontario for use in a research facility except from,

(a) the operator of a registered research facility;

(b) the operator of a pound, under section 20;

(c) the operator of a supply facility who is,

(i) the holder of a licence as an operator of a supply facility..”

Yes, you read that correctly, licensed laboratories may acquire dogs and cats from pounds. A dog or cat surrendered or past the mandatory stray hold (3 to 5 business days) is available to be acquired by a licensed lab in this province. Just imagine your pet gets lost and ends up in a different municipality, the hold period is up and your beloved pet could be on their way to endless cruel barbaric experiments.

Doug Ford appeared shocked and sickened that those adorable beagles were being subjected to prolonged inhumane procedures. It is his government's legislation that allows this and assists it in happening. 

Are we to believe the Premier did not know about the Animals for Research Act that his government oversees? If he did not know, that is bad enough, but I put forth that Ford’s messaging is very strategic and he knew he had to act shocked and torn up in front of the public. 

To complete his shock and horror, he is promising to table legislation banning scientific testing this fall. But will he actually do it? Or will this just be another one of his smoke and mirror shows?

I want to be clear, Doug Ford did not create Ontario’s animal welfare crisis. But since taking office in 2018, he has contributed mightily to it. He has ignored sound expert advice. He has bowed down time and time again to special interest lobbyists whose clients profit from animal cruelty. 

Despite strong numbers showing that Ontarian’s desire strong animal protections, he has rejected easy checks and balances that would help protect animals from exploitation, abuse and neglect. He has rejected proposed legislation and regulations that would close loopholes and make it more difficult for bad actors to get away from facing justice. 

So he did not create this crisis, but he is continually turning his back on fixing it, all the while deceiving the taxpayers of this province with his proclamations of zero tolerance and strong legislation.

It is time the people of this province hold elected officials to account. Are they working for the people and supporting their hopes for what Ontario will be and who we are, or are they working for the special interest groups that promise to keep them in power?
 

Donna Power is the co-founder of the Humane Initiative, a prominent animal advocacy organization in Ontario. 

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